When the new Ferguson TEA-20 tractor arrived in the spring of 1950 it was an eventful day for a two-year- old farm kid. It came from the Ferguson dealer in Renfrew, Ont. on a one ton Dodge truck. They also sold Dodge cars.
The little gray Fergie was quite an improvement from the 2N Ford-Ferguson that dad traded in.
The Ferguson had a 27 horsepower over head valve standard engine like the Vanguard car and even the Triumph TR4, instead of 23 HP flathead that the 2N had.
Dad was just going to buy a loader for the 2N but traded for a new tractor with a loader and also traded the two furrow Dearborn plow with the 2N and a three furrow Ferguson plow also came in time for fall plowing.
The Fergie also had four gears ahead instead of three in the 2N. Second gear made it possible to pull the three furrow plow and third was great for raking hay.
The Ferguson came with the footboard option which made it much safer for a three-year-old who had to stand on the clutch with both feet and push up on the steering wheel to change gears.
My most memorable part of the Ferguson tractor was the Ferguson wrench that came in the tool box. The wrench was made from material that did not rust. It was 10 and a half inches long so you could check the depth of plowing even if you only plowed six inches deep.
It was an open ended spanner that was one and one sixteenth inch on one end and eleven sixteenth inch on the other. Fuel gauges on tractors were still not an option but the Ferguson wrench was long enough to dip the tank for gas. If the small end of the wrench didn’t get wet you had to fill the tank before leaving the yard. The big end of the wrench was too big to let the wrench fall into the tank and you always made sure that the wrench was clean before dipping the tank.
The Ferguson wrench fit the nuts holding the wheels on the tractor, loosened the oil cartridge holder, removed the oil plug to drain the oil, loosened the plug when you had to add oil to the transmission and it fit every nut and adjustment on plow.
The wrench was heavy enough to use as a hammer in an emergency and when I got too tired to sit on my dad’s knee on the tractor, dad threw his coat on the ground and the dog would sit beside me as I played with that Ferguson wrench until I fell asleep.
We didn’t have many tools on the farm in 1950. I remember a 10 pound sledge to break cement and pound in steel fence posts. There was always a good set of fencing pliers to pull steeples, cut wire, pull fence wire tight and pound in steeples. A pipe wrench was a must to make emergency repairs to water pipes and water bowels. There was always a knuckle buster often called a monkey wrench. When vice-grip pliers were invented, they were just as important to a farmer as sliced bread was to his wife.
When our neighbour’s uncle, who was a mechanic in Detroit, died and willed a set of three quarter inch socket wrenches to him, our neighbour gave them to dad because he didn’t have anything that they fit. Dad and most every farmer always carried a jackknife in his pocket. Dad always bought a knife made of good quality steel and just after buying it would grind the tip off the blade so he would have a screwdriver to adjust carburetors, work on electrical connections, set the points on gas engines, and anything else that required a screwdriver in an emergency.
To this day farmers always carry a jackknife, just because. My knife must be flat enough to carry in my pocket, have a sharp blade, a flat screwdriver, a bottle opener in case I get dry and a corkscrew in case the wife gets dry.
Chris Judd is a farmer in
Clarendon on land that has been
in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
